Chemical Engineering Resume Builder. Your resume made professional

Name the process behind each job title: the kind of plant or lab, the unit operations you designed or ran, and the scale, from bench to pilot to full production. Safety deserves the same prominence. If you've joined a process hazard analysis or handled management of change under OSHA's Process Safety Management standard, name the study or change and your part in it.

Licensure tends to come in two steps. It isn't required at entry level; for a Professional Engineer (PE) license, states generally require an accredited engineering degree, a passing score on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, several years of relevant work experience and a passing score on a PE exam, such as the PE Chemical exam. List your FE or PE status with the state. New graduates should give internships and co-ops real space, since some employers prefer that experience. Plants judge results by yield, throughput, energy per unit, batch cycle time and off-spec product, so put your numbers in those terms and name the simulation and control software you use.

One way to write it: "Raised distillation yield 2.5% by retuning reflux control, cutting off-spec batches from six to two per quarter."

• How do I list lab skills on a resume?

  Write what you did on each instrument, not just its name: "HPLC: method development and validation" says more than "HPLC." Grouping helps a reader scan, for example separations (HPLC, GC), spectroscopy (FTIR, UV-Vis, NMR) and wet chemistry (titration, sample prep), with data tools such as a laboratory information management system (LIMS) on their own line. Then name the quality system your lab worked under, such as ISO/IEC 17025, the international standard used to accredit testing and calibration labs. Add your lab safety training too: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laboratory standard requires employers to train staff on the hazards of chemicals in their work area. See Chemistry Intern examples.

• What goes on a chemical engineering resume for a new graduate?

  Treat your capstone like a job. ABET, which accredits engineering programs, requires a culminating major design experience that works within engineering standards and multiple constraints, so describe yours that way: the process you designed, its capacity, the limits you met on cost, safety or emissions, and your part on the team. Your unit operations lab belongs nearby, naming the column, heat exchanger or reactor you ran and what you measured. If you've passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, list it; the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) designs it for students close to finishing an ABET-accredited degree, so a pass can go on your resume before you graduate. See Chemistry Intern examples.

• How do I show piping or instrumentation work on a chemical plant resume?

  Name the codes and standards your designs met, since they tell a plant which of its systems you already know. Piping engineers can cite ASME B31.3, which ASME describes as covering piping in refineries and chemical, pharmaceutical and similar plants, from design through examination and testing. Instrumentation engineers should list safety instrumented system (SIS) work under the ISA-84 series, which includes ANSI/ISA-61511 (IEC 61511), the standard that sets SIS performance targets by safety integrity level (SIL); give the SIL ratings and the number of safety functions you handled. Add the plant type and project phase for each, such as new build, revamp or turnaround. See Senior Piping Engineer and Senior Instrumentation Engineer examples.

• Going from senior instrumentation engineer to manager: what should the resume add?

  Keep the engineering record, then add the proof of management that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) describes for the role. Engineering managers typically advance after years as engineers, and their duties include determining staff, training and equipment needs, proposing budgets, and hiring and supervising staff. So under your senior engineer title, flag work that already looked like management, such as leading a loop-check crew or owning the instrument budget for a turnaround. Under the manager title, give headcount, budget, contractors and the calibration backlog or uptime you answer for. A master's in engineering management or an MBA, which BLS says some managers earn, goes under education. See Senior Instrumentation Engineer and Instrumentation Manager examples.